Roughing it is the new awesome

Maybe you remember that I totally love the earth lately. To continue down the path of becoming a full fledged hippie I agreed to go camping with Steve this past weekend. Steve told me I needed to secure myself a sleeping bag (some twenty degree something or other) and an LED headlamp. Here is the sleeping bag I bought that met all the specifications that I was instructed to meet.


And here is my LED headlamp that met all the specifications that I was instructed to meet.


It wasn't until I proudly displayed my new camping gear for Steve that I realized there were other, unspoken rules about purchasing camping gear.
One: Apparently my Coleman sleeping bag was the ProWings of sleeping bags and instead, I should have asked the bum that lives across the street from my apartment if I could borrow his for the weekend.
Two: Apparently I should have known the headlamp I purchased was giant.
Whatever, how is a non-camper suppose to know that? So after much heckling and embarrassment I returned said gear to Target and hit up Brigham to borrow his sweet sleeping bag and head lamp.

We set off on a beautiful Friday afternoon...



We had a bit of a rough start only because everyone else in America was driving north on 101 as well but about three hours later we ended up in Hendy Woods State Park.


Steve was in charge of all the gear and I was in charge of our camping cuisine. See how organized (OCD) I can be when I really set my mind to it?


The highlight of our camping cuisine were these foil dinners we made. Potatoes, carrots, onions, chicken and cream of mushroom soup...


...cooked over an open fire turned out to be one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.


We spent Saturday hiking.


And looking at giant redwood trees.


Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this is the type of headlamp that is acceptable to camping snobs all across the land.


Other highlights of our weekend were s'mores, that my borrowed North Face sleeping bag was called "The Goliath," and the fact that we didn't get attacked by any coastal bears.

After two days of roughing it I felt a little bit like this...


Now that I'm an expert in all things outdoors, I may just try and rally the SF troops for a huge camping expedition sometime this summer. The next thing I plan on becoming an expert in: Dutch oven cooking.